Movies: Night of the Living Dead

I'll never forget the first time I saw "Night of the Living Dead." It was Halloween, and Rob Zombie (of all people) was hosting the Sci-Fi Channel's "Zombie-a-Go-Go" movie marathon. I was a youngster, and Rob Zombie's monotone intro to the flick went something like this: "All right. Up next is 'Night of the Living Dead.' Yeah, yeah, I know everyone's seen it a million times, but it's still a classic."



I was instantly sucked in. How could you not be? Seven strangers, trapped inside a farmhouse, with a horde of flesh-eating corpses clawing their way inside...it's the stuff of nightmares. I eventually had to go trick-or-treating that night, so I missed the climax of the film, but I never forgot it.

The next brush I had with NotLD was watching a grainy, low-quality version on my computer over dial-up modem. I finally got to see the entire film, including the memorable ending. Years later, I picked up the "Millenium Edition" DVD of NotLD (to my knowledge, it's still the best version available - the picture quality annihilates pretty much everything else out there).

One of the interesting things about the film is the fact that it inadvertently lapsed into the public domain. It was released in 1968, back when you had to reserve your rights when you published something to keep your copyright, and the distributor left the copyright notice out of the film when the title was changed from "Night of the Flesh Eaters." The creators, including legendary director George Romero, never saw any of the profits from the film.